British Heart Foundation Data Science Centre appoints Prof Tim Chico as new Personal Monitoring Data Thematic Lead and Associate Director
The British Heart Foundation (BHF) Data Science Centre is pleased to announce the appointment of Prof Tim Chico as its new Associate Director and Theme Lead for Personal Monitoring Data.
Tim is joining the BHF Data Science Centre, led by Health Data Research UK (HDR UK), on a part-time secondment basis to provide strategic leadership to identify and prioritise key areas of work in the use of large-scale personal monitoring data – such as use of health-tracking apps and wearables – in cardiovascular research and healthcare. Tim will work in collaboration with the cardiovascular research community, clinicians, industry, patients and the public to shape and develop approaches that link personal monitoring data to other types of health data to improve understanding, monitoring and management of cardiovascular disease.
Tim is Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and honorary Consultant Cardiologist at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Research Director for Healthcare Data / AI in the Institute of In Silico Medicine (INSIGNEO) at the University of Sheffield. He brings a breadth of expertise in cardiovascular research and medicine and is an Academy of Medical Sciences “Future Leader in Innovation, Enterprise and Research”.
Tim Chico, said:
“I’m really excited to work with the BHF Data Science Centre team and lead this important research theme. Personal monitoring technologies have huge potential benefits. To achieve these needs a coalition of patients, clinicians, researchers, industrial partners, policy makers and commissioners pulling in the same direction. Working together will help co-design patient-centred, equitable, secure and effective technologies to enhance cardiovascular research and healthcare”.
Professor Cathie Sudlow, Director of the BHF Data Science Centre, said:
“We are delighted to welcome Tim to work with us at the BHF Data Science Centre to further develop the exciting possibilities and potential for using personal monitoring data to accelerate our understanding of cardiovascular diseases. I look forward to working with Tim and multiple relevant stakeholders to develop scalable approaches for integrating personal monitoring with other types of health data, enabling research that will improve cardiovascular health for everyone.”
Enabling large-scale use of personal monitoring data in cardiovascular research is one of six key thematic areas at the BHF Data Science Centre. This thematic area will focus on developing approaches to enable integration of personal monitoring data (such as wearables that monitor an individual’s physical activity or cardiac rhythm or obtain information from app-based questionnaires) with other types of health data (such as electronic health records). The aim of this work is to understand more about the causes, prediction, trajectories, monitoring and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, driving benefits for patients and improving cardiovascular health.
